"Tee Dee"

Yes, Eden occasionally - alright, every day - asks to watch tv. I hate it. I don't like for her to watch tv so much. I want her to play with her toys and color and read and do all that kind of fun stuff. Anyways, today simply watching tv wasn't good enough. She specifically asked for "gabba" which is her favorite show {and always has been}

These characters haunt my dreams at night! The songs haunt my days as I find myself singing them...when Eden isn't even around! {"There's a party in my tummy...so yummy, so yummy!"} Though the show's characters are odd looking to me and DJ Lance Rock is silly looking in his orange skin tight jumpsuit, the show does teach some good messages.

*Don't hit your friends
*Share
*Love
*Safety
*Don't bite your friends
*Dance
*Colors
*Pretend

So, all in all, Yo Gabba Gabba is a part of our lives on a very regular basis!

18 Weeks

Today I went to my every-four-weeks doctors appointment. Because Lane hasn't left for SERE school yet and he basically has the week off he was able to go with Eden and I and we made a family event out of it. It was nice to have him there since he hadn't been able to make it to any of the appointments before today because of his work schedule.

The doctor was happy with everything she heard and measured. The baby was kicking and moving as she listened to the heartbeat. The baby's heartbeat came in at a whopping 138 {much lower than what Eden's heart rate was} Does this mean it'll be a boy?! Who knows! We'll just have to see what that ever-so-important ultrasound says in a few weeks.

My due date is still up for question - February 27 or March 5 - and the doctor is sticking to the 27th. I, however, tell people that I'm due on the 5th. Based on the doctor's due date, this was my 18 week appointment, but according to me, this was my 17 week appointment. I guess we'll get things settled down and figured out more concretely when I get to California and meet my doctor who will deliver Baby #2.

Come and Gone

It's official...we're all alone. But we're all alone as THREE for at least a week!!! All of our family has left town to head home, and the visit was much too short {but isn't it always?!} Eden woke up from her nap today asking for Mimi, Gamma {Grandma} and whoever else she didn't see when we came downstairs. She loved having her cousin here to play with, and she got lots of love and hugs and kisses from lots of family!

It will take a few days for her to adjust to the quiet house I'm sure, but hopefully we'll all get caught up on some lost sleep in those few days! We never did stay up too late, or get up too early, but we were always going or trying to figure out our next meal, so I'm tired for sure. I napped today while Eden did and it was a fabulous nap if I do say so myself. I hope family is able to catch up on some z's as they get home and settled in.

Now the time comes for us to sit and wait to get orders to move to California {I feel like we just went through this to get to Texas!} We're supposed to be there before December and I'm crossing my fingers that it doesn't take that long to get the orders. There's much more to do in San Diego than here in Corpus Christi - and let's face it, fall is upon us and we had a heat index of 103 yesterday. Not quite the fall I was hoping for!

Winging Pictures

As the Winging Ceremony has come to an end and the day is coming to a close I want to share with you some of the pictures that don't even come close to showing how proud we are of Lane. He has accomplished a great feat and I am proud to say that I am a Marine Corps Pilots wife! {That felt great!!!}

We decorated the driveway when Daddy said he might fly over the house. He didn't see us and we didn't see him...

Too hot to wait outside looking for Daddy, so we got out the pool.

Kick Kick Kick!

The banner, all done, ready to hang!

Pop and Eden on "Daddy ride"

Lane's winging class picture

Class picture sans the hats

The banner, hung, looking good! 

We took Eden and Mack to Celebration Nation to play one morning.

She loved calling him Pop!

Eden got a present from Grandma and Grandpa.

Her very own flight suit and she even got a patch with her name embroidered on it!

The family at the blessing of the wings ceremony. Jeanine, Daron, Grandpa, Grandma, Mack, Angela, David, Mimi, Pop, and Eden.

Pinning his wings on the tapestry in the chapel during the ceremony.

Our friend Mr. Matt was one of the "helpers" at the static display of the planes, so he helped Eden out in the plane.

Mimi was flying "Daddy ride" {as Eden called it}

Lane getting his soft wings patch.

Daddy's first set of wings!

Grandpa flying "Daddy ride"

Presenting Daddy's wings to him.

Probably my FAVORITE picture from the whole day!

The winging class from both squadrons.

The newly winged Marines.

Angela gave me roses, one military spouse to another, thanking me for the sacrifices that have been made by our family. She always knows how to bring a tear to my eye! Love her!

18 Months!

Ok, I know, this is late...way late. Eden is now closer to being 19 months than to her 18 month mark, but we just had her well baby appointment last week. If I haven't said it before, I'll say it now {and if I have said it, I'll say it again!} - I LOVE Eden's doctor! She's great.

That being said, Eden had a great check up. She weighed in at 24 pounds 1.5 ounces, and they gave me her height in centimeters so I unfortunately don't remember it. I do know, however, that on her height tracker in her room I marked her on May 7 and then I marked her again last week and there's a difference of about 2-3 inches! My oh my how we've come so far from being weighed every month when she was in the 1st and 3rd percentile to now when she's in the 50th percentile.

The doctor asked how many words Eden is saying that we can understand and I told her that there was no way for me to even try to begin to count them. She knows body parts (head, hair, ears, eyes, nose, mouth, hands, arms, tummy, fingers, legs, knees, foot, toes) in addition to people's names (Mommy, Daddy, Eden, Parker, Mimi, Pop, Nelson, Noah, Becca, Grandma, Grandpa, McKenzie, Cael, Baby, Abby, Laney, Nugget, Ginger) and then you can't forget her random words that she seems to learn EVERY DAY! Sit, "yook" (look), chair, seat, shoe, show/Gabba, flower, cloud, mail, keys, bye bye, night night, "ya no" (I love you), hold, up, please, thank you, water, milk, cheerios, snack, eat, dog, duck, paci, car, walk...I feel like I could go on and on! Something else she's starting to do is put 2 words together to make small sentences more regularly. Now do you see why I told the doctor I wasn't even able to begin to try to count her words.

Eden also got to get 3 shots! I don't like when she gets shots because she's in pain and there's nothing I can do to make the pain go away and I actually have to hold her down to allow these people to inflict the pain on her. This time, I did laugh...out loud. When the corpsman gave her her first shot, she looked at me and said "owie" (there's another word to count!) When he realized what she said - before she started crying - he noted that "owie" was what he heard too and then I laughed! What mom does that?! Well, This mom does! I also picked her up and comforted her and we talked about her cool bandaids that she (and I) got for being big girls (I got my flu shot) and she got TWO stickers - oh yeah, she knows that word too! She was a big girl and she even took her bandaids off all by herself when she was ready for them to be gone.

All that to say Eden had a healthy well baby visit last week with the doctor.

Winging Banner

Another tradition within the winging community is a winging banner. I decided to make Lane's banner and document the process. It wasn't easy to track down instructions and I have friends who will be making banners in the coming months, so I thought it was a good way to show the work that went into it and the "how to" make the banner.
What you need for the banner:
Canvas for the actual banner - the size of the banner that I made is 54in x 36 in
Felt for the letters
Felt for the border {I used yellow} - about 1/2 a yard should do
Gold pleather for the wings - 1/4 yard should be ok {they end up being about 3ft tip to tip and about 12in high}
File to enlarge for the wings. {if you need this, email me (mrs.daigle@gmail.com) with "wings of gold file" as the subject and I will send you the file I have *they are the wings for the Coast Guard, Navy, and Marine Corps. The Air Force wings are different*}
Brand new sharpie
Black paint pen

Letters traced onto the white felt. "CONGRATULATIONS" is in size 300 font, the rest of the wording is done in size 200 font. All lettering is done in the same font, which should be one without many curves - a very clean line font - because it is then easier to cut out.

To trace the letters, I taped the letters to the window and dotted them with a sharpie onto the felt.

Trace the wings onto tissue paper with a sharpie. No need to get exact thickness of the lines, just a simple trace with a single thin line.

Once the tissue paper is traced, I cut around the wings and taped the tissue paper to gold pleather in order to trace them again...yes, trace them again! This time use a NEW black sharpie so that the ink bleeds through the paper onto the pleather.

Top left set of wings is the orginal file that was used to start tracing from. The bottom right (cut off) is the tissue paper wings that I traced over again with the sharpie. The center wings is what you end up with after using the sharpie to trace the tissue paper and remove the tissue paper.

Last set of tracing! You now go over the sharpie wings with  pain pen directly on the pleather. This sharpens up the lines and makes it look better. The lines now pop and the next step is to cut out the wings with about .25 inches between the cut edge and the black line.

Cut your yellow felt in the length (54 inches) and the width (36 inches) of the banner 5 inches thick. I cut mine 6 inches with anticipation of hemming the felt, but decided against the hem, so then had to cut the extra inch off. The felt is not a fabric that will fray and I attached it to the banner with glue, so I didn't see the need to hem it. You will need 2 of each the 54in and the 36in borders.

The top set of border fabrics are the 36in and the bottom set is the 54in.

Lay out your canvas in preparation to cut it to the 54x36 size. {Make sure you have all the help you can get!}

Use the straight edges if you can to ensure that you get true 90 degree angles for the corners. {Notice I had to change locations because of all the help I was getting!}

Fold the border pieces in half, one at a time, and iron them so they're easier to place on the edges of the canvas.

Glue the border pieces onto the canvas with the fold that you ironed into the felt at the edge of the canvas. You will have half of the felt on the front and half on the back of the banner. {I used mod podge for fabric, but you can use hot glue, iron on adhesive, other fabric adhesive, or you can actually sew it all together - just follow the instructions for whatever you use!} After you glue the border on the canvas lay out all of your letters and wings before gluing them down to ensure that they're centered and level {and that you have all the letters/numbers that you need - I was missing 2 numbers! Oops}

I finally cut out the 3 and the 0 and got them hot glued onto the banner.

Lane helped me cut through all FIVE layers of fabric to put the eyelets on the top 2 corners of the  banner. I got these at a fabric store and we just followed the instructions on the back of the eyelets package to attach them.

The finished banner picture will have to wait! Lane has one flight left {scheduled for tomorrow} and he won't let me hang it until he's officially done. I know why, but now that its done, all I want to do is hang it for all to see! I do promise to post a final banner picture {lots of them probably!} soon. I'm not promising when I'm going to post it because I have a to do list a mile long for tomorrow and then family rolls in each day until the winging ceremony on Friday! {Can you believe it? Friday?!?! That's only 3 days away!!!!!!}